Pharmaceuticals & personal care products testing

ALS has expertise and experience providing analytical services for PPCPs in water, soil, sediment, and bio-solids.

Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products (PPCPs) as pollutants refers, in general, to any product used by individuals for personal health or cosmetic reasons or used by agribusiness to enhance growth or health of livestock. PPCPs comprise a diverse collection of thousands of chemicals substances, including a prescription and over-the-counter therapeutic drugs, veterinary drugs, fragrances, and cosmetics.

Every day millions of gallons of treated and untreated sewage and wastewater are discharged into the waterways of the world. This sewage contains varying concentrations of pharmaceuticals and personal care products including prescription and "over-the-counter" medications, nutraceuticals, detergents, perfumes, insect repellant, and steroids.

Recent studies have shown that many of these compounds at low concentrations can have negative effects on the endocrine systems of aquatic organisms. These compounds are collectively known as EDCs. Other concerns regarding PPCPs include contamination of drinking water, toxic effects on wildfire, and development of antibiotic resistant bacteria.

Some government and regulatory agencies have monitoring requirements for PPCPs in wastewater reuse as well as wastewater discharge.

ALS has provided analytical services for PPCPs in water, soil, sediment, and bio-solids for over ten years and has analyzed thousands of samples. ALS has developed analytical methods for these compounds using Liquid Chromatography/Mass Spectroscopy/Mass Spectroscopy (LC/MS/MS) with isotope dilution. These methods allow for the analysis of a broad array of PPCPs and Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals (EDCs) with detection limits in the low ppt range for water matrices and low ppb range for solid matrices. We also utilize EPA methods 1668 and 539.

The Kelso laboratory has compiled a target list of PPCPs that are commonly found in environmental samples. The following tables list these compounds along with their method reporting limit.

ALS also offers analysis of product specific PPCPs as well as method development for specialized analytes of interest.